Weekend Grub: Planning a last iftar out? Make it to La Atrium in Lahore
Ramazan has come to an end and this means a lot of us spent a good month bingeing on desi snacks.
While some of us relished home-cooked goodies like dahi bhallay, fruit chaat and pakoray, some stepped out to enjoy the variety an iftar buffet has to offer.
With that in mind, I recently decided to break my fast at La Atrium. Would I recommend it for the last weekend of Ramazan? Read on to find out.
Where to go
Tucked away behind ChenOne on Haali Road, Gulberg is La Atrium. With its façade veiled with trees, the premises is divided between this Italian eatery, a café and a Lebanese restaurant. You can’t miss it if you’re travelling on the road behind Pace, Main Boulevard, Gulberg.
When to go
At iftar-time, the glass walls and high ceiling of the restaurant lights up the eating area beautifully. At other times of the year, the roof is covered to keep the cool in the summer, while winter days are serene and stunning in the room.
What to order
La Atrium delivers on the buffet promise: its variety ranges from fresh salads and fried delicacies to Chinese and Pakistani mains and a range of desserts.
Almond-filled dates and Rooh Afza are placed on the table when you’re seated, so you break your fast with them. Later comes the lemonade.
I loaded my plate with helpings of fresh watermelon, fruit chaat, Thai crunchy chicken salad, white and red bean salad, crispy spicy potato mini samosa, delicious mini chapli kabab, mix pakora and a chicken empanada.
The salads and fruit chaat were fresh, the samosa crispy and generous with filling though just slightly on the spicy side and the chapli kabab -- my favourite on the entire menu – juicy and spicy, just the way I like it. The mix pakoras were cold and could have been fresher and the empanada just lacked taste.
A few minutes after iftar, dinner was laid out. In the first round, I got myself mince lasagna, egg fried rice, Thai basil chicken, Szechuan chicken and golden-brown fried fish with tartar sauce.
The lasagna was hot, tasty and generously filled, but most of the other mains disappointed. The rice tasted bland, and the basil chicken and Szechuan chicken were probably improvised because they tasted very different from what I’ve had elsewhere. There was a different flavor dominating in each, which was just off; the spice in the basil chicken was too overpowering.
The fish emerged as the saving grace of the dinner menu. Crunchy, golden-brown on the outside and soft and aromatic inside; dipped in that tartar sauce, I could have it all evening. And since I generally love fried fish, I had got loads of it.
After a breather, I tried the chicken haleem, gola kabab and chicken boti. The haleem had an artificial color to it but didn’t taste too bad. The kabab and boti were also well-seasoned - they tasted not too spicy, not too bland.
There was so much more on offer for dinner, which I eschewed to keep room for dessert. For information sake, I gave a miss to biryani, mutton kunna (don’t know what it was doing in the menu in this scorching weather), white qorma and BBQ chicken.
For dessert, I had their gulaab jaman (obviously), chocolate tart, mango tart, basbousa, chocolate mousse, coconut panna cotta, black forest cake and, finally, a brownie.
The tarts weren't too bad, the gulaab jaman swimming in sugar syrup were delectable (how can you go wrong with them, really); I had the basbousa for the first time and loved it. Dripping with syrup, this Middle-Eastern cake, made with semolina and coconut, was just sweet enough.
The chocolate brownie offered lots of texture, crunchy on the top and nutty inside. The black forest cake was a disappointment, which was expected – they’re the same everywhere. The mousse could have had a bit more chocolate-y, otherwise the texture was just right.
The biggest let-down in the dessert section was the coconut panna cotta – it was completely flat and rubbery. What I couldn’t try was the bread pudding, assorted pastries and firni. With this ended my mega Iftar/dinner, which even by sehri time hadn’t gone down.
On the whole, it was a decent enough experience; one must choose wisely what to eat in a buffet because not all eateries get every dish right every time.
Damage on the pocket
The iftar/dinner buffet costs around Rs1,499 plus tax. With so much to offer, this seems like a fair deal. However, if you’d rather skip iftar and head straight to dinner, their dinner buffet starts at 9pm and costs Rs799 plus tax.
Pro tip: Try getting a table in their main hall instead of the café or the Lebanese restaurant for a pleasant ambiance.